Source: Jacobs, Jane. Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics. New York: Random House, 1992. Print.


A. COMMERCIAL MORAL SYNDROME
Occupations associated with it concern commerce, production of goods, services for commerce, most scientific work. The classic bourgeois values and virtues. The condition characterized by these "symptoms" is viable commercial life.
  • Shun force
  • Come to voluntary agreements
  • Be honest
  • Collaborate easily with strangers and aliens
  • Compete
  • Respect contracts
  • Use initiative and enterprise
  • Be open to inventiveness and novelty
  • Be efficient
  • Promote comfort and convenience
  • Dissent for the sake of the task
  • Invest for Productive Purposes
  • Be industrious
  • Be thrifty
  • Be optimistic

B. GUARDIAN MORAL SYNDROME
Occupational groups: armed forces and police, aristocracies and landed gentries, government ministries and their bureaucracies, commercial monopolies, law courts, legislatures, religions (especially state religions). The condition is the work of protecting, acquiring, exploiting, administering, or controlling territories.
  • Shun trading
  • Exert prowess
  • Be obedient and disciplined
  • Adhere to tradition
  • Respect hierarchy
  • Be loyal
  • Take vengeance
  • Deceive for the sake of the task
  • Make rich use of leisure
  • Be ostentatious
  • Dispense largesse
  • Be exclusive
  • Show fortitude
  • Be fatalistic
  • Treasure honor


Examples of Guardian Intervention

Guardian intervention in the Commercial system happens after there is evidence of market failure. Examples include: child labor laws, consumer safety, the national parks or later environmental laws, consumer safety, popular election of Senators, women's suffrage, a progressive tax system, decent labor laws, a minimum wage, Social Security, Glass-Steagall, the GI Bill, civil rights laws, Medicare, Medicaid, Legal Services, Head Start.

Guardian intervention in the Commercial system because of market failures also happens when the Commons is polluted. Examples include: DDT, acid rain, ozone, second hand smoke, river water quality, underground gasoline and oil tanks, dairy farm runoff, city air quality, CO2 in the atmosphere.

Economic Liberty

Critics of Guardian intervention say the constitution protects economic liberty. However, the American Commercial system has never been an unregulated free market.

The Constitution defined a unified, common market with no tariffs or taxes on interstate commerce. The original Guardian system setup by the Constitution defined the economy and the American government took action immediately to intervene in the agricultural Commerce system at that time.

The intervention by the original American Guardian system was based on four ideas: a tariff to protect and promote homegrown industry; a national bank to foster commerce; federal subsidies for roads, canals, and other “internal improvements” to develop markets for agriculture; and maintenance of high public land prices to generate federal revenue.

Although the Constitution and Amendments define individual rights and mention liberty, there is nothing that supports the idea of economic liberty as a constitutional right.